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Thursday, December 27, 2007

Hello from south Lanarkshire and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Christmas here was as quite as it can be with an excitable 7 year old in the house and he was very lucky to have a 'very Lego' Christmas!

So that kept him (and me) rather busy for quite some time and we're not finished yet!

We've also been out and about a bit. Today we went to Cornhill House where my sister is getting married in May. Yesterday we also went to Corra Linn and New Lanark.

I've also been taking these photos for my brother.

These are watercolours painted by my grandfather. One of them stays with my parents, the other with me. For the last couple of years, my brother has been talking about getting digital copies of some of Grandpa's pictures so that he can have prints made. These photos are our latest attempt, although I don't think the light is quite good enough.

In amongst all the excitement, I've almost finished stitching on Edgar's RR! I can't believe how well I've got on with it and have thoroughly enjoyed stitching on it. I've now moved on to restart Paradigm Lost using a completely different floss and am really enjoying it too! Photos next time.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

I finish work today until the 7th January (hurray!) so, between now and then, I don't know when I'll get the chance to blog again or catch up with everybody. I thought I'd leave you with a photo of my Christmas tree, complete with knitted monkee in a Santa hat!

On Monday we'll be heading off up the M1/M6 to my parents' house where we'll be staying over Christmas and for most of next week. On our way. we have to stop off in Manchester at my sister's house to drop off presents and pick up my brother who is coming over for Christmas week from his home in Orlando (the one in Florida). I haven't seen him since last Christmas, so it'll be lovely to see him again.

I'm also looking forward to being back home in Scotland. Somehow, I find it easier to relax up there. The air seems so much clearer and fresher and the scenery is amazing.

This poor monkee doesn't look entirely happy with all the Christmas festivities, although I do think he enjoyed being permitted to scramble around in the Christmas tree.

I just have this sneaking suspicion that his is more of a 'bah humbug' sort of expression. Or maybe he's just tired. Poor thing.

So until next time, wishing you all the best for a Merry Christmas and a good New Year.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

I ended up having another couple of days off work last week. And although I was choked up to my ears with a streaming cold, I had a couple of nice, relaxing, really productive days! So now I get to show off what I did with my time. If you haven't guessed already, I'm very very pleased with the end results!

I finally finished off my Huswif which I stitched in the first half of the year. The design was a mystery by Carol Tinson of Heirloom Embroideries. I made a number of changes to the charted design as I was stitching it which I described in this post in May.

Last week, I started with this -

And over a morning, transformed it into this -

I used a piece of my own fabric for the inside, rather than that supplied by Carol.

And I stitched a small pin cushion and scissor fob.

I really am very pleased with the end result - it's gorgeous! The photos just don't do it justice - even at 9.30am this morning the light was still too dull and dingy!

In a fit of enthusiasm, I also stitched a little beaded Mill Hill ornament. I have to confess that I think this is the first time I've stitched a Christmas ornie!

Finally, I had to go to the post office this morning to collect some parcels which the postman had been unable to fit through my letter box. I was expecting a number of Christmas presents which I've ordered for friends and family. However, I was surprised and pleased to find a parcel from Edgar waiting for me.

I haven't opened it any further yet, but thanks so much Edgar! You really have been very kind and generous.

My DS was also very impressed (as only small boys can be) with the box it came in and with the polystyrene packaging which he immediately put to use as a camouflaged bed for a toy baby seal!

Monday, December 10, 2007

What happened to last week? It just turned into one of those weeks for me where nothing worked out the way I'd planned. After spending 2 days at home with DS and our colds, I went back to work on Wednesday expecting to be very busy for the rest of the week. However, on Thursday I then came down with a stomach bug and spend another uncomfortable 2 days at home taking care of that. Hopefully, everything is back to normal now!

Despite the chaos, I did manage to achieve a few things, such as the monkee. I also managed to get Donna's RR finished and into the post.

It's a slight variation on LHN's Through the Woods.

I now have Edgar's RR to work on using a tree theme. I'm trying to work out something based on Morning Berries.

At the very start of last week, I was also one of those fortunate enough to receive an early Christmas gift from a friend.

The Belgian stamp threw me completely, but I'm very touched and grateful for the gift. Given the number of people whose blogs I've seen this on, this lovely person has been extremely generous in her gifts!

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Here he is - my first monkee! He knitted up quite quickly but seemed to take ages to put together and stuff!

I had thought his name was Malky, but he and DS took an immediate fancy to each other, and after a short discussion, DS announced that his name is Zero-X1.

After reaching this understanding, Zero-X1 was quickly put to work as a contortionist's assistant.

After that he made himself at home getting to know the other residents of our house.

He seems to fit in very nicely.

Did someone say shopping?

The monkee bag came last week courtesy of Monkee Maker's shop. It arrived all parcelled up like an early Christmas present!

Thanks Monkee Maker! More monkees are planned but I think I'd like to work out how to make the half pint variety first. So it might take a little while to work out the pattern amendments first! And I want to knit a gnome too, and there's my stitching, and it's nearly Christmas .......

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

One of the things I really like about blogging is that I can write about whatever takes my fancy, whenever I feel like it! I don't need to worry about whether or not somebody's going to be interested (although, of course, it would be nice) or whether or not it's appropriate (I'm the only one who can decide what is or isn't appropriate). And it can all be so spontaneous! So here's something that's taken my fancy today.

I find it interesting to occasionally have a look and see where visitors are arriving on my blog from. Today's look produced some interesting results. Somebody had arrived at my blog via a search on the name of my great grandfather, John Chisholm Lambert - I wish they had stopped to say hello!

John Chisholm Lambert was born in Trinidad in 1857 and died in 1917 at Fenwick in Ayrshire. He was a minister in the United Presbyterian Church firstly at Stewarton in Ayrshire and then at Cathcart near Glasgow. Shortly before 1900, he was forced to retire from preaching as his voice failed, I think due to throat cancer. While staying on as Minister-Emeritus at Cathcart, he also became an author of Christian works with titles like "The Romance of Missionary Heroism" and the "Christian Workman". I have copies of some of his books.

John's father, George Lambert, was also a minister but spent some time in Trinidad with his wife, Jane Chisholm, and family as missionaries of the United Presbyterian Church. George and Jane both had family and roots in the area around Dalkeith, just south of Edinburgh.

Out of curiosity, I repeated the search on Google for John Chisholm Lambert and came up with some interesting results that I hadn't seen before.

I've seen many references to Dr John C. Lambert D.D. but didn't know where or when the Doctor of Divinity came from. My web search led me to this web page showing that it was an Honorary Doctor of Divinity awarded in 1906 by the University of Edinburgh. And I've even found images of a program from the graduation ceremony on 12th April 1906 here.

Sometime ago, while browsing around the library here at work, I found a copy of the memoirs of a Scottish minister named David King. Astoundingly, inside the front of the book I read the following inscription "To Mr George Wilson Chisholm from his affectionate nephew John Chisholm Lambert 25 Jan 1866", John Chisholm Lambert being my great grandfather and George Wilson Chisholm his mother's brother. I just about stormed the main library desk demanding to buy the book on the spot! Fortunately, following a less vociferous route, I was able to buy the book and it now sits on the shelf beside my great grandfather's own books.